We have all been in circumstances where we have been exposed to our leaders/managers giving us a run around, a bold face lie, a story that didn’t make sense. We have also been exposed to our leader/manager giving us the truth, whether it stung a little or felt great to hear.
According to Jocko Willink, truth and honesty are “perhaps the most essential of leadership qualities.” What does this mean for you? Tell the TRUTH…to your players, team, to your colleagues, and most of all, to yourself.
The main take away from this is to tell the truth with tact, sensitivity, and with objectivity. Too often our truth telling or receiving is tainted by emotions and the stories we create immediately upon giving/receiving feedback.
This is why yearly evaluations are TERRIBLE! Every encounter you have with your team is a chance for you to give feedback and cultivate a relationship. Waiting a year to fix an error/mishap/area of growth needed/or mistake that occurred is a waste of energy, time, life, and builds a wall against you and the other.
There must be consistent and constant feedback so all know what the leader wants done and what each member of the team needs to do in order to accomplish this. Communication is crucial. If you don’t communicate what happened or didn’t happen, the growth and efficiency of your team is diminished.
3 THINGS YOU CAN DO
Communicate exactly what you want to accomplish
Let your team come up with the game plan
Communicate with your team about what is working/not working
Doing these 3 things ensures all are on the same page, relationships are being built, ownership over the project is in the team’s hands, and any bad news will sting just a little less.
Don’t wait to have the hard conversations, they will only get harder as more emotions get involved.
COMMUNICATE, BUILD RELATIONSHIPS, NEVER LIE